Sketching and Bicycling in San Clemente, California

Last week, Roberta and I escaped the icy grip of the Polar Vortex and visited family in San Clemente in sunny, Southern California. We took along our Brompton folding bikes. We stow our journals, art supplies, water, suntan lotion and other stuff in Brompton S-bags attached to the front  bike frames:

Roberta & I peddling around San Clemente on our Brompton folding bikes.

Roberta and I sketching in front of the Beachcomber Motel.

Roberta captured the transition from the frozen farm fields of Minnesota to the blue skies and warm sea breezes of San Clemente (watercolor and Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils on Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal).
Click on the sketches to make it bigger:

Sketches from the plane and on the ground in San Clemente.

San Clemente is a fun place to bike. There are a bunch of good bike lanes on on roads to the beach from where we were staying. We were staying way up in the hills. Here's a sketch I did of the view using watercolor on Strathmore Series 500 Mixed Media paper:

Sketch of the view from a hill in San Clemente.

The late January chill and cold water doesn't stop the dedicated surfers of San Clemente. Roberta sketched a wetsuit hanging from a tree in a front yard up in the hills:

Roberta sketched this tree and wetsuit.

We did a bunch of sketching on and around the San Clemente Pier, a popular place for tourists and surfers:

Roberta sketched surfers on a cool. grey day.

My sketches in my small toned paper Strathmore journal –  La Gallette Creperie and the pier.

My sketches in the small journal of surfers from the pier.

My sketch of the umbrellas & heaters at the Fisherman's Restaurant on the pier.

Some sketches Roberta did on the pier.

We had a great time sketching and bicycling in San Clemente and we look forward to returning to the warm breezes, sunny days and dive-bombing hummingbirds:

Lots of hummingbirds in San Clemente.